By Lee Wei Lian-The Malaysian Insider
IPOH, Feb 12 — Pakatan Rakyat senior state executive councillor Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham today slammed a New Straits Times report quoting judicial sources that called its suit to declare vacant two state seats a “political ploy”, saying it was unacceptable for judicial services to leak information.
The report quoted the judicial sources as saying the suit filed by Pakatan Rakyat last week to prevent Barisan Nasional form taking over the state “was nothing but a mere eye wash to appease its supporters” and contained flaws to blame delays on the courts.
Responding to the allegations, Ngeh said Pakatan Rakyat has never accused the courts of any delay and that it was “untenable if the judiciary is leaking information”.
“If any supporting documents are needed, they must ask the applicant,” Ngeh told The Malaysian Insider.
“Based on the story in the NST, it looks like they have pre-judged the case as irregular. It creates an impression that they are leaking things out and that the court wants to be political.”
Ngeh also said if the sources are judges, they should be sacked. “Judges are not supposed to express views until they have heard both sides,” he pointed out.
The New Straits Times report quoting sources said the courts could not proceed with Pakatan’s civil suit based on the following grounds:
- No supporting affidavit was provided. Sources said that without an affidavit to support the originating summons (OS), the deputy registrar was not able to set a hearing date.
- No certificate of urgency was attached to the OS for the High Court to hear the matter urgently.
- Plaintiffs failed to extract sealed copies of the OS to be served to the three respondents. Until the copies are extracted and served, the High Court may not proceed with a hearing.
“There is no way the High Court can proceed given the flaws in the case,” the judicial sources said.
Ngeh responded that there was nothing legally wrong with the documents.
“Because of the urgency, we filed applications without affidavits because affidavits can be filed within 14 days,” he disclosed.
“The certificate of urgency can be filed anytime as and when necessary when we need to be heard immediately.,” the Perak DAP chief said, adding a Pakatan legal team had advised to stay the suit after it was filed last Friday.
“This speculation that we accuse the court of delays is purely a creation of parties out to damage the image and reputation of Pakatan Rakyat.
“The judicial’s role is to hear both sides before making a decision. The sources are disseminating a pre-judged opinion to the media which may border on contempt of court. I urge the chief justice to investigate the matter,” Ngeh said.
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